January 1: An Act of Union causes England and Scotland to be united as Great Britain. The
Scottish parliament in Edinburgh is adjourned.
Scotland sends sixteen Peers and forty-five Members of Parliament to Westminster in
return for cross-border trading rights.

Death of Aurangzeb, the last Mogul Emperor. British colonial power in
India waxes, with the East India
Company exercising increasing control over Indian territories.

Sir John Floyer introduces the method of measuring blood circulation by
counting the rate of pulse beats.

The Jacobite Rebellion ("the 'Fifteen") breaks out in
Scotland, led
by the Earl of Mar in the name of James, the "Old Pretender", who lands
at Peterhead. The rebellion is put down after Jacobite forces
are defeated at Sheriffmuir and Preston.

In Britain, a Riot Act is passed for the suppression of rebellions and
civil disturbances.

Brook Taylor, an English mathematician, invents the calculus of finite
differences.

In the wake of the "South Sea Bubble," John Aislabie, the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, is sent to the Tower of London for fraud. Robert Walpole,
father of Horace, becomes Lord High
Treasurer and restores public credit.

With the death of Charles VI, the War of Austrian Succession begins.
Following the "Pragmatic Sanction" of 1713,
Maria Theresa succeeds her father. Frederick the Great of Prussia attacks
Silesia in the first conflict of the war.

Death of Frederick William I of Prussia; succeeded by his son, Frederick
II ("the Great") who increases freedom of the press and freedom of religion.

A joint edition of Sophia's Women's Superior Excellence Over Man
and the volume to which it responds, Man Superior to Woman, or, a
Vindication of Man's Natural Right of Sovereign Authority, is published.

The Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") lands
in Scotland and raises a Jacobite rebellion
against the Hanoverian monarchy. After a victory at Prestonpans, the Jacobite army
advances as far south as Derby before retreating to Scotland.

Charles Edward Stuart victorious over Hanoverian forces at Falkirk, Scotland but is finally defeated at
Culloden, when Cumberland's army massacres an outnumbered army of mostly
Highland Jacobites. The Young Pretender escapes to France, ending hopes for future Jacobite
rebellions.

The English government attacks Highland folkways and military
traditions by outlawing the wearing of tartans.

The French defeat Austria at Raucoux; Austria loses its Dutch possessions.
France is also victorious in India, ousting the British from the port of Madras.

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the Austrian wars with general
recognition of the "Pragmatic Sanction" and of Emperor Francis I.
Britain and
France end their fighting in North
America and India; Madras returns to British rule.

Developments in astronomy: Thomas Wright speculates about the
origin of the solar system, Nicolas de Lacaille leads an expedition
to the Cape of Good Hope to determine the solar and lunar parallax,
and Johann Tobias Mayer draws a "Map of the Moon."

The Seven Years' War begins. Britain allies with Prussia and
declares war on France, expanding the
Indian and American conflict into Europe. The war begins when Frederick
of Prussia invades the German state
of Saxony.

The French take the island of Minorca from Britain and take control over
the Great Lakes area of North America.

Lord Clive campaigns against the French and the Nawab of Bengal in India.
One hundred and twenty British prisoners die in an infamous prison soon
known as the "Black Hole of Calcutta."

British forces in the Caribbean capture Martinique, Grenada and Havana.

War break out between England and Spain. British forces capture Manila
and Buenos Aries.

With the death of the Empress Elizabeth, the new Tsar Peter III withdraws
Russia from the European war. Prussia,
Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire agree a truce. Prussia and Sweden
sign the Treaty of Hamburg.

The Seven Years' War ends with the Peace of Paris. According to the
terms of the treaty, Britain must renounce the trading advantages won
through its capture of Newfoundland fishing rights, Guadaloupe and
Martininque, and Dakar. William Pitt sees all his war aims lost.

The Stamp Act for taxing the American colonies is passed in the
British parliament. The Virginia Assembly challenges the Crown's right to
the tax; at the Stamp Act Congress in New York, a declaration of rights and
liberties is drawn up by colonial delgates.

The American Revolution begins with the battles of Lexington, Concord and
Bunker Hill. The second Continental Congress is called in Philadelphia,
appointing George Washington commander-in-chief of American forces.

James Watt perfects the steam engine.

Johann Kaspar Lavater
publishes the first part of Physiognomische Fragmente, inaugurating
the pseudo-science of physiognomy.

The American Declaration of
Independence is signed in July. Benedict Arnold is forced out of
Canada and defeated at Lake Champlain; Washington forces the British to
retreat from Boston; the British take Rhode Island and New York;
Washington wins at Trenton.

Britain is defeated by American
forces in battles at Princeton and Bennington, but is victorious at Brandywine
and Germantown, Pennsylvania. French volunteers under Lafayette arrive in support of the Americans.
The British General Burgoyne loses two battles in New York.

British forces surrender to the Americans at Vincennes. French forces
take Grenada and St. Vincent from the British. The U. S. Congress sends an army
into the Wyoming Valley in order to attack Native American warriors.

In the American Revolution, the British are victorious at Charleston
and Camden. French troops arrive at Camden. The British are defeated at
King's Mountain, North Carolina. Benedict Arnold is revealed as a traitor.

Henry Grattan begins to demand Home Rule for Ireland. The colonial trade
is opened to Irish goods.

Anglo-Prussian invasion of France precipitates an increasingly violent
chapter in the French Revolutionary struggles.

September: The French National Convention abolishes the
monarchy and declares the beginning of the new French Republic. Radicals
storm Parisian prisons and kill over a thousand suspected
counter-revolutionary traitors in the September Massacres.

French troops cross the Rhine River
and conquer the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium).

British forces victorious over Tipu Sultan in Mysore, India,
increasing British military control over the subcontinent.

Rebellion breaks out in Ireland,
led by Wolfe Tone. Around 100,000 Irish peasants revolt against British
rule, with temporary success; some 25,000 die as the rebellion is put
down. Wolfe Tone is arrested and commits suicide while in prison.

Napoleon invades Egypt and
occupies Rome. England defeats France in the Battle of the Nile. The
French defeat a counter-assualt on Rome by Ferdinand of Naples.

The British government institutes a tax of ten percent of all incomes
over two hundred pounds.

The Iberian Wars continue with the Spanish revolt against French rule and
the naming of Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon
as King.

British troops led by Sir Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) land in Portugal.
Under the controversial Convention of Cintra, British forces allow the withdrawal of French troops.

Napoleon calls the summit at Erfurt,
attended by Alexander I of Russia
and the princes of the Confederation of the Rhine. The three week summit -- known as Die Tollen Tage
(mad days) at Erfurt -- includes Napoleon's famed meeting with Goethe.

European wars, the American embargo of trans-Atlantic trade and the
continental blockade leave British credit and industry at a dangerously
low ebb. General European financial collapse seems increasingly likely.

The death of Sir John Moore in the Battle of Coruna leads to
Wellington's appointment as commander of British troops in the Iberian peninsula.

France and Austria at war. Vienna falls and Napoleon issues his famous
decree annexing the Papal States and stripping the Papacy of temporal rule.
Pope Pius VII responds by excommunicating the French Emperor. The Pope is
taken prisoner. Napoleon divorces Josephine.

The Covent Garden and Drury Lane theaters, in London,
burn down and are subsequently rebuilt.

Napoleon, at the peak of his power,
annexes Holland, suppressing all Dutch
commerce with Britain and
the Americas. Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland and the Emperor's brother, abdicates
his throne in protest. Napoleon marries the Archduchess Marie Louis of Austria.
He goes on to annex German lands in
Hannover, Bremen, Hamburg, Laurenburg, and Lübeck.

Economic recession deepens across Europe. Napoleon issues the Decrees of Rombouillet
and Fontainbleu, confiscating American and British goods, respectively.

Fractious negotiations between Britain and President Madison fail to lift the American embargo.

George III increasingly incapacitated by mental and physical illness.

Patriotic revolutionary movements rise in Spanish South America,
rejecting the authority of Joseph Bonaparte and the Spanish junta alike.
Simon Bolivar's revolt in Venezuela inspires similar uprisings in Spanish
and Portugese colonial territories.

Britain seizes French colonies at Guadeloupe, Isle de Bourbon, Java and
Isle de France.

American forces defeat the Spanish in Western Florida, securing the advantage pressed
since the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

Napoleon launches a massive
invasion of Russia and takes Moscow,
but is forced to retreat with terrible losses. An attempt by General
Malet to install Louis XVIII as king in Napoleon's absence fails; Malet is
executed.

The United States Congress declares war on Great Britain. Naval conflict begins
immediately but maneuvers on land are slow to ensue.

British Prime Minister Perceval is assassinated in the House of
Commons. His Tory ministry is succeeded by that of Lord Liverpool.

In England, an anti-Luddite frame-breaking Bill is passed in
Parliament. The industrialization of British manufacturing continues
apace.

Wellington invades Spain from Portugal and liberates the peninsula
from Napoleonic rule. Now at war with the British, Austrian and Russian
Empires, Napoleon's forces are driven from Holland, Italy and Switzerland.

American forces are victorious over the British in a naval battle at Lake Erie.

Allied armies invade France from
the north, south and east, inciting Bourbon sentiment as they
traverse the country. Napoleon
fights a series of brilliant counter-attacks but, by March,
Paris has fallen.

April: Napoleon abdicates and, through the efforts of Talleyrand, is succeeded by Louis XVIII.
Napoleon is exiled to the Italian island of Elba.

The great European powers meet for the Congress of Vienna (September
1814-June 1815) and agree upon a conservative and monarchist world order.

British forces attack Washington D.C., burning the White House and
Capitol. American forces under Jackson are victorious at New Orleans.
The "War of 1812" is concluded by the Treaty of Ghent.

English Corn Laws passed in Parliament. These protectionist laws
encouraged the export and limited the import of corn when prices fell
below a fixed point, later becoming the object of a fierce political
struggle between the landowning and industrialist classes.

The British navy develops the first steam-driven warship.

George Watson invents the steam locomotive.

The French legislature passes a law prohibiting abortion
except "when it is required to preserve the life of the mother
when that is gravely threatened."

Industrial depression worsens in England.
A new tax on the importation of grains results in rising prices. Labor
unrest grows,
with working-men's meetings at Manchester, Littleport, Nottingham and
London.

Continuing industrial depression and unrest in England.
Riots occur at the opening of Parliament; a working-class insurrection is put down in Derbyshire;
seven members of the Society of Luddites are hanged under the Frame-breaking Bill; the "Manchester
Blanketers" march on London.

Political unrest in England leads to the suspension of Habeus Corpus and the
suppression of radical and democratic societies.

Bolivar lands in Venezuela, attempting to re-conquer the country from Spain.
San Martin and Bernardo O'Higgins lead a successful revolt in Chile.

Black Dwarf, a radical magazine, is founded by William Hone. Hone
is put on trial by the government over his publishing of Political Litany.

In England, the "Peterloo Massacre"
occurs when Manchester magistrates order armed and mounted soldiers to
clear a peaceful meeting of sixty thousand people. Around five hundred are injured and
eleven killed; the meeting's radical leaders, including Henry Hunt, are imprisoned.

The British Government passes the so-called "Six Acts" for the suppression
of radical political activities and labor organization. Henry Grattan's motion
to consider Catholic emancipation is narrowly defeated in the Commons.

"Missouri Compromise" in United States Congress admits slave-holding Missouri into
the Union. Slavery is maintained in southern states while it is outlawed in the north and
any future state.

Declarations of independence from Spain are made in Venezuela, Columbia and Ecuador.

August von Kotzebue is assassinated in Germany by a radical student, leading to
a conservative government crackdown. The Convention of Karlsbad orders increased intellectual
suppression in schools, universities and publishing.

Two further British expeditions to the
Arctic Ocean in search of the Northwest Passage, including that by William Parry.

August: Mary Shelley sees R. B.
Peake's play, Presumption, which opened at
the Lyceum Theatre, London, on 28 July. The second edition of
Frankenstein, with textual alterations by Godwin, is
published on 11 August.

Major financial crash in Britain. Only
rapid emergency measures prevent the collapse of the Bank of England.

Death of Alexander I of Russia. After a brief revolt, Alexander is
succeeded by his younger brother, Nicholas I.

The industrial revolution gathers steam: the first railroad comes into operation in
England, running between Stockton and Darlington; Brunel sinks the first shaft for the
Thames tunnel; a chain suspension bridge is erected over the Menai Straits,
North Wales; Crowther's hydraulic crane is patented; Mechanics Institutes
are founded in Exeter and Belfast.

England's first Reform Bill is passed.
The Bill extends the franchise to £10/year male householders and apportions
parliamentary representation more fairly. Over two hundred thousand voters
are added to an electorate of half a million.

Giuseppe Mazinni founds "Giovine Italia" (Italian Youth), an organization
with the aim of achieving national independence for
Italy.

At Hambach, Germany, mass demonstrations
are held in support of the national and liberal cause.

Revolutions in many European governments: three revolts in Vienna force
the reignation of Metternich, the flight of Ferdinand I, and the appointment
of Franz Joseph I as Austrian Emperor. A revolt in Rome causes the flight
of the Pope. Revolutions break out in Berlin, Venice, Milan and Parma.

February: French revolutionaries force Louis Philippe to abdicate. The
National Assembly meets and a worker's uprising takes place in
Paris. In December, Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte is elected president of the new republic.